Field of the Invention
This invention is generally directed to automated multi-directional material handling systems which may be used to selectively retrieve and discharge containers, supplies, cargo, vehicles, armaments, storage bins and the like, within storage facilities, automated parking facilities, warehouses, vessels at sea and the like, and wherein the systems include cost effective and rigorous overhead intersecting “I” beam overhead track support systems along which transfer units or vehicles may be operated to move materials and articles to house such materials and articles or transfer such material and article between ground and storage or port facilities and between different modes of transportation.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Overhead rail systems for supporting motorized and non-motorized vehicles or transfer units, for moving or transporting physical items or groups of items within warehouses, storage structures, vehicle parking or storage facilities, boat storage facilities, shipping or port handling and transfer facilities are known in the art. Such systems may include overhead open box beams such as described, by way of example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,753,637, 7,850,412, 7,909,558 and 8,408,863 to Benedict et al, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Such overhead conveyor systems include load transfer or container carriers, commonly referred to as transfer units, TUs, which are suspended on carriages that are supported within open box beams. The TUs are suspended by shafts or yokes that extend through open channels or slots in lower surfaces of the hollow box beams. As described in the earlier U.S. Patents, one of the most efficient and economical manner of shipping goods over land and waterways is the use of standardized cargo or shipping containers. The containers are manufactured in standard sizes which are generally twenty or forty feet in length. The containers are specifically designed so that they may be loaded into the holds and on the decks of ocean going vessels, stored in land base warehouses and/or moved from the vessels or warehouses by use of either on-board or on-shore cranes which place the containers directly onto land transport vehicles such as railway cars and trucks. Conventional container ships, warehouses and the like include one or more hold or storage spaces which in some structures may be divided into a plurality of vertically tiered cells by vertical beams which act as guides for the corners of containers that are to be stacked one upon another within each cell. Typical cells may retain as many as six to ten or more stacked containers. In other structures, the storage spaces may be more open such that containers may be stacked one upon another without the vertical guide beams.
The same type of vertical storage cell structures, with and without the vertical guides, may be used in other environments such as in cities for high density automated parking facilities for vehicles, at docking areas for high density storage of boats and for the general storage of any type of goods and materials in warehouses and other storage systems wherein standardized containers may not be appropriate.